I’m an ex-royal chef – I never cooked the same meal twice, had 80 cooks at my disposal & lived like a trillionaire
AN ex-royal chef has opened up about his extravagant life, including how he never cooked the same meal twice and lived like a ‘trillionaire’.
Ed McLachlan, 37, spent four years as a private chef for a royal family in Abu Dhabi and had 80 cooks at his disposal.
He lived in a six bedroom villa with his wife, Nikkie, 36, and spent six months of the year travelling around the world.
Ed picked out restaurants for His Royal Highness to dine in every day and tasted the entire menu ahead of time to see if it was fit for him.
When in Abu Dhabi he had 80 chefs on hand to help cook whatever he wanted with the finest ingredients that were sourced from all over the world.
One of the more premium items was bluefin tuna from Spain which was kept in a sperm cell freezer.
The dad-of-two moved back to the UK in 2020 and now has his own food truck business, Yamza, creating Eastern fusion cuisine.
Ed, from Sidmouth, Devon, said: “We had to buy a sperm cell freezer at -90 degrees so the fish came out as fresh as it went in.
“We had white truffles the size of your hand.
“I never cooked something twice.”
Ed started working in kitchens from as young as 13, before doing an apprenticeship at a top restaurant in Exeter aged 17.
He later became the youngest Certified Master Chef in the world when he was just 24.
On his days off he would go to butchers and bakers to do unpaid work to get as much experience as possible.
Ed then took a nine-month trip cooking on chartered super yachts – working up to 18 hour shifts – and was a chef in ski chalets during the winter.
He came back to the UK before being offered a job as a private chef for a royal family in Abu Dhabi.
He said: “They said you need to have a suitcase packed at all times. I thought ‘perfect’.
“I had 80 chefs at my disposal. The finest ingredients were stocked.
“I tried the best restaurants for him.
“I’d fly in advance to try them. It’s all about the flavour. It’s not about how crazy or fine dining something is.
“It could be a cheap restaurant.”
What it is like being a chef for the royal family
COOKING for royalty means that everything has to be perfect as former royal chef Darren McGrady well knows.
Darren, who worked for the royals for 15 years and cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, has revealed that when it came to banqueting events he had to prepare no less than 150 plates of food for the late Queen.
Speaking to Coffee Friend, Chef McGrady said: “There were no food tasters, no.
“Some Royals had their food prepared separately away from guests at big banquet events.
“However, with the Queen, we would prepare 150 plates and the Queen’s page would come in and pick one at random.
“That way, if you were to tamper with the food you would have to tamper with all of them.
“From our perspective, it also meant we had to get the same standard across every plate, not knowing which one the Queen would be eating.”
Ed said experiencing the best food in the world made him “fussy” and “pernickety” and gave him a drive to “up his game”.
He said: “My ability went through the roof.
“I did 12 different dishes every meal. They were small dishes – fine dining.
“I got to be creative. I was never asked to cook anything.
“I wasn’t living like a millionaire – it was like a trillionaire.
“They treated me like family.”
I had 80 chefs at my disposal. The finest ingredients were stocked. I tried the best restaurants
Ed McLachlan
Ed came back to the UK just before the start of the pandemic for family reasons, and set up a takeaway from his garage.
He created food combining everything he had learnt from all over the world.
It was so popular he had to have a booking system for people to pick up their food.
In 2022, Ed had a food truck built and named his business Yamza.
Now he is always busy selling a combination of Indian, Arabic and South Asian food.
Ed said: “It’s really naughty and yummy.”
Next he hopes to be able to open a restaurant or drive-through to grow the brand.